I love science fiction detective novels. They are a mashup of two of my favorite genres. Most stories try to put a noir feel into the science fiction setting, but there are some that aim for a straight forward detective story. And that is close to what Kiln People is. David Brin has brought us a detective story that is the setting for a wonderful novel full of ideas. The ideas don’t come fast and furious, but fall into the story in logical places and the impacts of the ideas are discussed along with the story. So, let’s see what Kiln people is all about.

David Brin pulls off a great trick in that he juggles 4 separate storylines which take place at the same time while only using one main character. This is managed by the dittoes. The future has technology that allows people to make copies of their “standing wave” (less than a soul, but more than just memories) into a clay model. This model (or ditto) has all the person’s knowledge and memories and can be sent out to do chores (or less sundry tasks). There are different levels of clay such as Green (basic physical labor), Grey (Business type) and some other specialized ones (some available only to the ultra wealthy) which have different levels of mental ability.

The story focuses on detective Albert Morris and three of his dittos, one green and two greys. Morris is unique in that most of his dittos are high quality copies. Most people have trouble with the process and some of their dittos aren’t imprinted well enough to work well. One of the major plot points in the story involve the fact that the green ditto is an imperfect copy which causes ramifications in the story. Morris and his three dittos get involved in different cases that all tie back to the same larger case. The founder of the company which makes the clay dittos (and created the imprinting process) has gone insane and is planning a huge disaster so that he can elevate himself to godhood.

The plot is fairly straightforward and the characters are few (made easy when you have four versions of the same person), but well-developed (again easy when you have four versions of the same person). But the plot and characters are really not the major draw of the book. Brin has created one basic new technology (the imprinting of dittos) and the story and characters are their to explore the ramifications of this technology as well as possible future advancements of the technology (and their ramifications). Beyond the basic technology, Brin talks about four main advancements.

The first is longer life spans for the clay. Currently they only last about a day. If a clay ditto is able to last long enough, then a person would effectively have immortality by having a second body that can live longer. But since clay to clay imprinting doesn’t really work, that is the second advancement discussed. With that improvement, immortality is easier since a ditto can imprint another ditto if damaged. The third improvement is imprinting at a distance. The effects on travel are easy to see. You send blank clay dittos out and (if they arrive successfully) you imprint them at a distance and don’t have to worry about the ditto expiring (after their energy runs out in a day) during travel. The last advancement is the scariest one, the ability to imprint into someone else’s ditto. You would basically be taking over someone’s identity this way.

The story is a good, fun read and a reminder why I love reading Brin (and am excited by his new book coming out next month – Existence). The ideas carry the story along and make for a thoughtful story that has well thought out ideas. Highly recommended.